The 24-year-old, who now competes for the North Shore Swimming Club in Auckland, will be part of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team at the Games.
She is joined in that team by Gabrielle Fa’amausili, Georgia Marris and Laticia-Leigh Transom.
Doyle is now coached by former Otago swimmer Andrew McMillan, at the North Shore club.
She said yesterday, when contacted, she was thrilled to be picked for the team.
She was told she had made the team on Thursday and could tell her parents but no-one else before the official announcement yesterday.
She said the selection was the fruition of hours in the pool.
"It has been a lot of hard work. Every day the alarm goes off and you get up. Some days it goes off and you don’t really want to get out of bed. But you know that when you go to a meet that not getting out of bed, it’s going to come back on you," she said.
"You’re tired all the time but you get used to it."
She spent between 18 to 20 hours in the pool a week, along with gym work. She had Christmas Day off training but would be back in the pool on Boxing Day.
Born in Darwin, she had swimming lessons when young after her brother Braden had a close shave in a swimming pool.
Her time in the 200m freestyle had gone down by about a second since working with McMillan but it had not been decided yet whether she will be able to front in an individual event.
She won the 200m freestyle and finished second in the 100m freestyle at this year’s national championships.
She has represented the Black Fins — the national surf life-saving team — with some success, winning two of the three surf swims as New Zealand finished a close second to Australia in the International Surf Rescue Challenge. She is still a member of the St Clair surf life-saving team.
Doyle is studying at Massey University but will take next year off as she also has trials for the Pan Pacific Championships after the Commonwealth Games.
She said the relay team should make the final but many of the other nations have yet to finalise their teams.
The New Zealand team named on Thursday includes 17 swimmers — 12 able-bodied and five para — and two divers.
It includes experienced para-swimmer Sophie Pascoe, as well as Corey Main, Matthew Stanley and Liam Stone, who return for their second Games.
The Games will be held on Australia’s Gold Coast from April 4-15 next year.
Commonwealth Games
Swimming team
Chris Arbuthnott, Bradlee Ashby, Carina Doyle, Celyn Edwards, Gabrielle Fa’amausili, Helena Gasson, Bobbi Gichard, Daniel Hunter, Corey Main, Georgia Marris, Tupou Neiufi, Sophie Pascoe, Samuel Perry, Jesse Reynolds, Bronagh Ryan, Matthew Stanley, Laticia-Leigh Transom. Diving: Liam Stone, Lizzie Cui.
